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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28547922">Santa Secret Exchange Story: Sadness and Hope</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/AndromedaMistwalker/pseuds/AndromedaMistwalker'>AndromedaMistwalker</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Mass Effect Trilogy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Children, F/F, Hope, Side Story</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 23:40:10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,308</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28547922</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/AndromedaMistwalker/pseuds/AndromedaMistwalker</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A little story about Sadness and Hope.<br/>Never done such a thing before, hope I did it right. ^^</p><p>Merry Christmas and Happy New Year belated. Hope that story is a little bit acceptable. :)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Female Shepard/Liara T'Soni</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>MEFFW Secret Santa Exchange 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Santa Secret Exchange Story: Sadness and Hope</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daniscats/gifts">Daniscats</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>"Mama Jane?"</p><p>A child's voice interrupted the silence in the room that had prevailed for some time. Not an uncomfortable silence, a rather relaxed silence, almost contemplative one could say. Commander Jane Shepard was sitting in her armchair in the living room of the London apartment she shared with Liara T'Soni and their daughter, Karin Benezia, who was of course an asari, and was following the latest news on a communication channel on her omnitool when the little asari called her name.</p><p>"What's up, sweetie?" Jane asked, looking from her to Liara, who had just come into the room with two cups of tea.</p><p>"What is sadness?" Karin Benezia asked.</p><p>Liara looked at Jane, who returned her gaze.</p><p>"Sadness is a distressing feeling, often based on a negative event." Said Liara, trying to explain in a scientifically way, however, with such a small child it was questionable how much sense that made, although Karin Benezia was very intelligent.</p><p>"Can you see it?" Asked the child.</p><p>"Oh, yes, often you can see it, in the eyes of others, or when they cry, there are many indications for that. Sadness often leads to withdrawal and hopelessness" said Liara.</p><p>"Do we need to go into this topic?" Jane asked, somewhat anxiously.</p><p>"She asked, sooner or later she'll find out for herself anyway." Liara retorted.</p><p>"Have you ever been sad?" Karin Benezia wanted to know from both, receiving a yes. "Mama Jane struggled so much, you must have been sad a lot and ... hopeless?"</p><p>"Yes, that's the right word: hopelessness, hopeless. Very good!" Liara praised.</p><p>"Yes, I was often at a point where I wanted to give up my hopes, to retreat because the sadness wanted to overtake me." Jane confessed in a thoughtful tone.</p><p>She felt Liara stroke her back briefly. They had both been through a time marked by struggle, loss, pain. They had lost so many. So many and a view who were like them, who had not survived, whose names were now engraved in metal on the plaque on Normandy. Jane closed her eyes for a moment and took a breath as something occurred to her. She reached for her omnitool and began frantically tapping away on it, watched by two pairs of questioning eyes.</p><p>"Are you calling off the news again?" Liara asked.</p><p>"No, wait. I'll have it in a minute." Jane replied as she scrolled through countless entries. "I read a story once many years ago, a story of sadness and hope, and I remembered it in the hardest hours. Ah! Here it is." She looked at the two asari. "Shall I read it to you?"</p><p>"Yes, please!" Karin Benezia shouted. All children, no matter what species they might belong to, loved to be read stories.</p><p>So Jane began to read aloud…</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>The Fairytale of the Sad Sadness</b>
</p><p> </p><p>Once there was a small woman walking along a dusty sidewalk. She probably was already quite old, but she was light-footed and her smile had the fresh brilliance like that of a reckless young girl. She stopped at a huddled figure and looked down. She could not recognise much.</p><p>The being which sat there in the dust, seemed almost without a body. It reminded her of a flannel blanket with the outlines of a human. The small woman bent down a little and asked: “Who are you?”</p><p>Two almost lifeless eyes tiredly looked up: “Me? I am the Sadness” whispered a low and stagnant voice so that it almost could not be heard.</p><p>“Oh, the Sadness!” the small woman shouted with a happy voice as if she was welcoming an old friend.</p><p>“You know me?” the Sadness asked suspiciously.</p><p>“Of course I know you! Often you have accompanied me along the way.”</p><p>“Yes, but … why don’t you run away from me? Aren’t you afraid of me?” Sadness said suspiciously.</p><p>“Why should I run away from you, dear? You know very well that you can catch anyone. But I wanted to ask you: Why do you look so discouraged?”</p><p>“I …. am sad,” the grey figure answered in a fragile voice.</p><p>The old woman sat down beside her. “So you are sad…” she said and nodded understandingly.” Go on, tell me what depresses you.”</p><p>The Sadness sighed deeply: Could it be that this time someone really wanted to listen to her? How often she had wished for that. “Oh. You know …” she hesitantly started, amazed, “it is just that nobody likes me. It is my destiny to go among people and remain with them for a certain time. But when I come to them they are scared. They are afraid of me and avoid me like the plague.”</p><p>The Sadness swallowed, “They have invented sentences with which they want to banish me. They say: Rubbish, life is fun. And their fake laughter leads to cramps in their stomachs and makes them short of breath. They say: Praised be that which makes us tough. And then they get a pain in their heart. They say: You have to pull yourself together. And they feel a cramp in their shoulders and in their backs. They say: Only weaklings cry. And with the build up of tears their heads almost explode. Or they numb themselves with drugs and alcohol so that they do not have to feel me.”</p><p>“Oh yes,” the old woman acknowledged, “I have met such people often”.</p><p>The Sadness settled down a little bit more into herself. “But I only want to help people. When I am close to them they can find themselves. I help them to build a nest to tend their wounds. Sad people have especially thin skins. Some sorrows get opened up again like badly healed wounds, which hurt a lot.</p><p>But only someone who allows Sadness and cries all their bottled up tears can really heal the wounds. But people do not want me to help them. Instead they put on a garish laughter over their scars. Or they arm themselves with thick armor made of bitterness.” The Sadness said nothing; her weeping was first weak, then stronger and finally desperate.</p><p>The small old woman encircled the sunken down figure in her comforting arms. How soft and tender she was, while she caressed the quivering bundle. “Just weep, my Sadness.” she whispered lovingly, “Rest a little bit, so that you can gain some strength again. From now on, you should not walk alone anymore. I will accompany you, so that the discouragement does not gain power.”</p><p>The Sadness stopped weeping. She sat up and looked astonished at her new companion. “But … but… Who are you?”</p><p>“Me?” the small old woman said grinning, and then she said, smiling easily like a little girl, “I am the Hope”.</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>After Jane finished reading, she looked up from her omnitool. Karin Benezia smiled, Liara too, she even wiped a tear from her eye. The child noticed this and she looked at her asari mother. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Are you sad about this story now?" She asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"No, little one, these tears are tears of emotion. That was a very beautiful story, Jane. Thank you." Said Liara.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Yes, thank you Mama Jane!"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jane smiled mildly. "Just a little story, but very profound I think." She looked at them both contemplating and finally said, "They say a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world: someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for. I am glad to have all of those three things. I have you both," she glanced out the window at London, which was slowly taking shape again after the war, "I'm helping to rebuild our world, and I'm hoping for a better beginning."</span>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>"They say a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world: someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em><span>- Quote originally by</span><span> Tom Bodett</span> </em>
</p>
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